Three Palestinians including two children killed in Israeli army drone strike in the West Bank

Reda Ali Ahmed Basharat and Hamza Ammar Ahmed Basharat

Jack Khoury and Hagar Shezaf report in Haaretz on 8 January 2025:

Two Palestinian children and an adult were killed Wednesday in a drone strike in the West Bank village of Tamun, near Nablus. The Israeli army took their bodies.

Palestinians identified the deceased as Reda Ali Ahmed Basharat, 8, Hamza Ammar Ahmed Basharat, 10, and Adam Khair al-Din Ahmed Basharat, 23. Israel returned the bodies to their families, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

The Israeli army said it struck a terror squad that planted explosives in the region. It added that it had launched a probe into the circumstances of the killings.

Basharat’s family said 23-year-old Adam had returned from Mecca two days ago and that Israeli security forces could have arrested him already at the Allenby Crossing on his way back from Saudi Arabia if he had been wanted by them.

Two weeks ago, eight Palestinians were killed in the Tulkarm and Nur al-Shams refugee camps. Five of them, including two women – Khawla Ali Abdullah, 53, and Bara’a Khalid Hussein Al-Sheikh Ali, 28 – were killed in drone strikes.  The Israeli army acknowledged that the two women were not the intended targets of the airstrike, and a security source stated that the military is investigating the circumstances of the strike.  Additionally, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that nine people were wounded in airstrikes, including a 10-year-old child.

About a week earlier, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that an 80-year-old woman was killed by Israeli fire in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Another person, a 25-year-old man, was also killed in the shooting.   According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the woman, Khalima Abu-Lail, was shot in the chest and leg and died shortly afterward, while the young man was shot in the head. Two others were wounded during the operation, including a 65-year-old man who was shot in the back and a 21-year-old man who was shot in the abdomen.

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